The 1994 Japanese / American joint venture is probably best for child viewing. It is one of the ones I don’t watch consistently every year.  I watched it last year – the last time before that was was 2015. It was released on DVD in the early 2000’s.

This endeavor is pretty traditional; however, there’s nothing new or exciting about it. It doesn’t seem at all inspired.

I’m not familiar with any of the voice actors. The voice of Scrooge just doesn’t work. There are no problems with the competency of the actor. His voice simply doesn’t fit as Ebenezer. The best way I can personally describe him: he sounds like a comedic antagonist from a 1970’s Rankin-Bass Christmas special.

This is not a musical. Like the 1969 animated version, there is an extrinsic musical number. Before Marley leaves and we see the wandering spirits, Jacob Marley begins a very odd musical number that sounds like it came from a 1980’s British West-End all-singing musical! There is another song at the end. As this song plays the movie out and isn’t sung by a character, it can’t really be considered a musical number.

This is one of a few versions that visually represents the Ghost of Christmas Past as small in stature. There is a visual attempt at ambiguity with the age and, unfortunately, the gender. The character is obviously voiced by a man. The version picked up and mentions the non-novella event of Scrooge’s sister, Fan, having died in childbirth.

This is can be added to a list of animated versions I would recommend if you wish to introduce a child to the story while feeling more secure that it be less frightening.